


Secrets and Scars

by aretia



Series: Aretia's 1000 Follower Giveaway [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-13 03:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16009055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aretia/pseuds/aretia
Summary: Keith seeks out a tattoo master to cover up his scar, but the one he finds doesn't just do that--he also captures Keith's heart.





	Secrets and Scars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GrilledZiti](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrilledZiti/gifts).



> My 2nd place gift for yestofandoms/epicusernamerighthere for my 1000 followers giveaway!

Keith parked his speeder on the floating platform, and looked up at the small shop in front of him. In a city that had grown so much since the fall of the Galra Empire that it had to build its new buildings on top of multiple layers of levitating scaffolds, this place was about as hole-in-the-wall as one could find. According to Shiro, Veronica was the best tattoo artist in town at covering up scars, which was exactly what Keith needed.

The bell hanging over the door rang as Keith pushed open the door and stepped inside the empty shop. A slow, chill beat thumped over the speakers, the kind of music that lulled him into a daydream. “Veronica?” Keith called out, his voice echoing through the room.

Movement in the corner called Keith’s attention to the fact that he was not alone in the shop. The person sitting at a desk facing away from the door was most likely not Veronica. He was tall, thin, and tan, with a mop of short, shaggy brown hair. He wore a tank top with low-cut sleeves, and when he shifted, the shirt revealed slivers of a large scar on his back, intermingled with a tattoo of an ocean wave design. The full sleeve tattoos on his arms also drew Keith’s attention, abstract patterns glowing aqua blue.

The man stood up from his desk and turned around. “Veronica’s out for the day. How can I help you?”

Keith was momentarily rendered speechless by his beauty, both his tattoos and his elegantly sharp features. He swallowed, and then replied to the question. “I was looking to get a tattoo from Veronica, but that’s okay, I can come back later.”

“What, I’m not good enough for you?” the man shot back with a playful laugh, and Keith tensed at the accusation. “I’m Lance, her younger brother. I’ve been studying under her for five years, there’s nothing she can do that I can’t. What can I do for you?”

Keith was captivated. With those blue eyes staring into his soul, it wasn’t as if he could turn away. He found himself explaining his idea. “Well, I heard from Shiro that this shop is the place for covering up scars, and that’s what I need,” said Keith.

“Hmm, I see. Can you show me where it is?” Lance stepped closer to Keith, too close, and reached his hand up to run his thumb along the scar on Keith’s cheek. Keith’s face burned, and he felt like he was about to combust. “I’m afraid there’s not much I can do about this one. I don’t do face tattoos,” he remarked.

“It’s not that one,” Keith said. His face flushed as he turned around and reached to the hem of his shirt to pull it off.

“Whoa, if you’re going to undress in front of me, at least buy me dinner first,” Lance joked.

“The scar is on my back,” Keith said, pouting. He pulled off his shirt and pointed to his right shoulder, where he had received a deep gash during his Blade of Marmora trial.

“Oh,” Lance murmured. He didn’t seem disgusted, didn’t seem to think it was ugly—instead, his breaths on Keith’s skin were awed, reverent, like he was admiring a piece of artwork. As a tattoo artist, maybe he was. “How did you get this?”

“Um… motor accident,” Keith said. Even though the Blade of Marmora had defeated the Galra Empire and didn’t need to preserve their secrecy as they had before, it was still a sign of respect not to let the Blade’s ancient traditions slip to outsiders. He didn’t want anyone to think that his clan was as brutal as the Galra Empire had been.

Lance glanced out the window at Keith’s speeder. “Yeah, that thing looks like a death trap,” he commented, not suspecting a thing about it being an excuse. “What do you want on it?”

Keith pulled out his phone and brought up an image of the Blade of Marmora insignia, then handed it to Lance.

“That’s an awesome design, what is it?” Lance asked.

“It’s my… family crest,” said Keith. He wanted to get the Blade symbol tattooed on his back as a subtle way to honor the members of his clan who had died in the war.

“Family crest,” Lance repeated as he walked over to his computer. “You know, you’re a mysterious one. Are you in a cult or something?”

Keith smirked and let out a quiet laugh from his nose. “You could say that.”

Lance walked back up to Keith with a paper in his hand bearing a stencil of the symbol, sized to fit on Keith’s back. “You should know before I do this, I don’t cover up scars.”

Keith was thrown for a loop. “What? I thought that was your specialty here.”

“No, you misunderstand,” Lance insisted. “What we do is _enhance_ the _natural beauty_ of scars. Scars are a symbol of what you’ve survived, and you should be proud of them.”

 _Natural beauty._ Keith wished he could believe that his scar was beautiful. “If you say so. I just need this tattoo done,” said Keith.

“All right. I’m going to place the curve of this symbol along the your scar so that it eases the appearance of the rough edge a little bit. But the color of the scar itself will still be visible,” Lance said. “Does that sound good?”

Keith nodded. Lance gestured to a chair and instructed Keith to lie down. Keith folded his arms under his head and rested his head on the pillow, thinking about how he was putting his body in the hands of a stranger he had just met… and how _desperately_ he wanted those hands to touch him.

Lance satisfied his wishes. First, he felt Lance’s icy cold fingers trailing along the skin next to his scar, aligning the stencil with it. Then more cold and damp sensations as he pressed a wet cloth to the paper to transfer the design. The air in the shop was cool, and a fan on the ceiling created a slight draft, so Keith almost shivered from the cold. 

Then, when the tip of the tattoo needle touched Keith’s skin, it was too hot. The pain wasn’t unbearable—Keith had a high pain tolerance after all he’d been through, and each brush of the needle was about as painful as a paper cut. But the whole sensation was one of burning, like Lance was inserting sunlight directly into his skin. It didn’t help that Lance’s fingers against his bare skin made him feel feverish. 

Mercifully, the needles lifted from his skin, and a cool washcloth swiped along the in-progress tattoo, wiping away excess blood and ink. “You doing okay there?” Lance asked. 

“Yeah,” Keith replied.

“We can take a break if you need to,” Lance offered. 

“I’m fine,” Keith said, with a little too much bite. He softened the edge of his voice and added, “You’re almost done, right?”

Lance let out a laugh. “We’re just getting started,” he said. “If you need to take a break, just raise your hand.”

The rest of the hours blurred together. Lance talked endlessly about his family, about his sister’s tattoo business, about how his life had changed since the Galran war ended. It turned out that Lance was one of the human rebels who had fought alongside the Blade of Marmora, like Shiro, and Keith’s human father. Lance had been put out of commission by an explosion that severely wounded his back, so he departed from the front lines to aid the rebellion from behind the scenes, all while studying tattooing from his sister. He now bore an intricate ocean-themed tattoo done by her on top of that scar on his back, the one that Keith had caught a glimpse of earlier. Lance’s whole family had been involved in the rebellion, and the tattoo shop had been a front for their activities, until recently. Still, Lance and Veronica were talented at their craft, and now that the war was over their renown had spread beyond the rebel circles. 

Lance didn’t seem to need another person replying to him to keep a conversation going, which Keith found oddly comforting, since he didn’t know how to hold a conversation himself. He just lay there and listened to Lance’s soothing voice and the hum of the tattoo machine, which was beginning to feel more like a dull warmth than the sharp burning it had been at first. When it parted from his skin for the last time, Keith almost missed it.

“There we go,” Lance said, placing his hands on Keith’s shoulders to help him sit up. “What do you think?” He handed Keith an oversized hand mirror, so that he could use it to look into the full-length mirror behind him at his back without craning his neck. The freshly inked Marmora symbol was a bright, glossy indigo. The edges were crisp, and it blended seamlessly with Keith’s scar. 

“It’s perfect,” Keith said. 

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Lance said, propping his chin in his hand arrogantly, basking in Keith’s praise. 

Keith stood up from the chair and swayed slightly. Lance’s hand on his shoulder gently but firmly pushed him to sit down again. “It’s normal to be a little woozy afterwards, but don’t push yourself too hard,” he said. He walked behind Keith and placed a bandage over the fresh tattoo, and handed Keith his shirt. Keith’s shoulder sparked with pain as he lifted his arms over his head to pull his shirt back on. “You all ready to go?” Lance asked.

The adrenaline pulsing through Keith’s veins from the tattoo gave him an impulse that was too reckless, even for him. He thought better of it for a moment, but then he gave in. “I want to learn more about you. Maybe sometime I could come to the shop again, and if it’s not busy, we could just hang out and talk?” Keith hoped it didn’t sound too much like he was asking him out on a date, which he was, but it wasn’t exactly appropriate.

An easygoing smile broke out across Lance’s face. “That sounds great,” he agreed. “Maybe I can coax some of your secrets out of you, too.”


End file.
